Unfortunately for him, though, he’s playing next door to the Bill Paxton show, and that’s what draws the rave reviews. The everyman actor also sits in the director’s chair for this one, and the work is both clear and very vivid.
At its heart, the story is one of having faith in the midst of puberty. Of course, in this instance, you’ve got all those layers of “Should I carry out God’s wishes?” conundrums to deal with, but it’s the grounding of the sublime with more universal themes that makes this work.
The character of Fenton acts as a channel for the audience’s skepticism, in a brilliant piece of simplified storytelling (although the ol’ switcher-oo at the end creates some logic problems in the flashback sequences). This is aided by Paxton shifting quite easily between “good father” and “sinner butcher” without turning comical.
And from a purely reactionary standpoint, there are two very scary things operating at once here. One, death by axe has to be one of the worst ways to go. And two, there’s nothing more terrifying than someone who has justified seemingly abhorrent actions. Deftly detailing the “Is it true or not?” question adds the necessary ambiguity for horror without the guilt. |
